The Summer 2021 Olympics, already postponed from 2020, is experiencing yet another hiccup. Japan’s Government officials decided to ban foreign spectators from watching the event being held in Tokyo at the end of July
The Summer Olympics will officially start on July 23rd, and officially end on August 8th. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Olympics had been postponed for the first time since World War 2. With Japan’s prior Olympic hosting experience, officials in Japan are working hard to abide by COVID-19 guidelines to ensure a safe Summer Olympics is going to happen.
With the games being postponed in 2020, Japan’s officials have been very hesitant to host the Summer Olympics but are determined to make it happen.
According to CBS News, “Tokyo Olympics bosses in Japan and the International Olympic Committee have been steadfast in their determination to pull the event off — while always cautioning that some constraints would likely have to be made.”
According to an article called Japan to ban foreign spectators from Tokyo Olympics by The Hill, “The decision is being made between Japan, the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee, Tokyo 2020 and Tokyo Metropolitan Government. ”
The decision was talked about by multiple official corporations, and ultimately it was decided that the safest way to go about hosting the Olympics during the COVID-19 pandemic was to ban foreign spectators from visiting in-person.
Since COVID-19, Japan has had major success, with fewer than 500,000 confirmed cases of the virus, and under 10,000 total deaths, compared to the United States death toll at over 500,000.
Tokyo’s densely packed city, with over 30 million residents, has mostly steered clear of the virus with impressively low numbers for such a populated city. They have been practicing wearing masks and social distancing. Tokyo is the largest metropolitan city in the world behind other cities like Delhi, Mexico city and Sao Paulo. And have had major success compared to other densely populated cities.
Some spectators and fans were wondering whether or not they’ll be able to attend the event, and were upset when the formal announcement was no foreign spectators. But others agreed that the decision was most likely the best thing to do give the current state of the global pandemic.
Sonoma State student Kristen Monteverde, a lifelong Olympic Games fan, said, “The decision made by foreign officials seems like the safest thing to do with the ongoing pandemic.”
Japan has hosted the Olympic Games a total of four times, two which were in the city of Tokyo. Their first time hosting the olympics was in 1964, and at that time they were the first Asian city to host the summer games.
Although delayed a year, the 2021 Summer Olympics will have a wide variety of games and even add some new, never before debuted sports. The 2020 Games will see the introduction of new competitions including 3×3 basketball, freestyle BMX, and madison cycling, as well as further mixed events.
With the introduction of these new games, we’ll also see original Summer Olympic Games such as surfing, karate, climbing, skateboarding and more. These summer olympics will also have baseball and softball, which they haven’t included since 2008.
